Ashoka Pillar
E361546
The Ashoka Pillar is an ancient stone column erected by Emperor Ashoka to mark the birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini, Nepal, and bears one of his famous edicts.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ashoka Pillar canonical | 2 |
| Ashoka pillar | 1 |
| Ashokan pillar | 1 |
| Ashokan pillar fragments | 1 |
| Ashokan pillars | 1 |
| Sarnath pillar edict | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3477777 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ashoka Pillar Context triple: [Lumbini, hasLandmark, Ashoka Pillar]
-
A.
Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath
The Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath is an ancient Mauryan stone column erected by Emperor Ashoka at the site of the Buddha’s first sermon, renowned as the original location of India’s national emblem.
-
B.
Butkara Stupa
Butkara Stupa is an ancient Buddhist monument and archaeological site in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, renowned for its early Gandharan art and architecture.
-
C.
Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
The Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi are an ancient complex of stupas, monasteries, temples, and pillars renowned as some of the oldest and most important surviving Buddhist architectural and artistic remains in India.
-
D.
Koregaon Bhima victory pillar
The Koregaon Bhima victory pillar is a war memorial in Maharashtra, India, honoring the Mahar soldiers of the British East India Company who fought in the 1818 Battle of Koregaon, and has become an important symbol of Dalit pride and resistance.
-
E.
Dhamek Stupa
Dhamek Stupa is a massive 6th-century Buddhist stupa at Sarnath, India, marking the site where Gautama Buddha is believed to have delivered his first sermon.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ashoka Pillar Target entity description: The Ashoka Pillar is an ancient stone column erected by Emperor Ashoka to mark the birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini, Nepal, and bears one of his famous edicts.
-
A.
Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath
The Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath is an ancient Mauryan stone column erected by Emperor Ashoka at the site of the Buddha’s first sermon, renowned as the original location of India’s national emblem.
-
B.
Butkara Stupa
Butkara Stupa is an ancient Buddhist monument and archaeological site in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, renowned for its early Gandharan art and architecture.
-
C.
Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
The Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi are an ancient complex of stupas, monasteries, temples, and pillars renowned as some of the oldest and most important surviving Buddhist architectural and artistic remains in India.
-
D.
Koregaon Bhima victory pillar
The Koregaon Bhima victory pillar is a war memorial in Maharashtra, India, honoring the Mahar soldiers of the British East India Company who fought in the 1818 Battle of Koregaon, and has become an important symbol of Dalit pride and resistance.
-
E.
Dhamek Stupa
Dhamek Stupa is a massive 6th-century Buddhist stupa at Sarnath, India, marking the site where Gautama Buddha is believed to have delivered his first sermon.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
archaeological site
ⓘ
monument ⓘ pillar ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Buddhism
ⓘ
Sacred Pond of Lumbini ⓘ
surface form:
Lumbini Sacred Garden
Maurya Empire ⓘ |
| builtDuringReignOf | Ashoka ⓘ |
| builtInCentury | 3rd century BCE ⓘ |
| category |
Ashoka Pillar
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Ashokan pillars
Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Nepal ⓘ Monuments and memorials in Nepal ⓘ |
| continent | Asia ⓘ |
| country | Nepal ⓘ |
| culturalSignificance |
evidence of Ashoka’s pilgrimage to Lumbini
ⓘ
key epigraphic source for the historicity of the Buddha ⓘ |
| dedicatedTo |
Shakyamuni Buddha
ⓘ
surface form:
Gautama Buddha
|
| discoveredBy |
Alois Anton Führer
ⓘ
Khada Shamsher Rana ⓘ |
| discoveredIn | 1896 ⓘ |
| erectedBy | Ashoka ⓘ |
| governingBody |
Department of Archaeology of Nepal
ⓘ
surface form:
Department of Archaeology (Nepal)
|
| hasFeature |
inscribed shaft
ⓘ
sandstone monolith ⓘ |
| hasInscription |
Ashokan inscriptions
ⓘ
surface form:
Ashokan edict
|
| hasLanguage | Prakrit ⓘ |
| hasStyle | Mauryan art ⓘ |
| hasWritingSystem | Brahmi script ⓘ |
| heritageStatus | UNESCO World Heritage Site component ⓘ |
| inscriptionMentions |
exemption from certain payments for Lumbini
ⓘ
reduction of taxes for Lumbini ⓘ visit of King Ashoka to Lumbini ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Lumbini
ⓘ
Lumbini Province ⓘ Nepal ⓘ Rupandehi District ⓘ |
| marks | birthplace of Gautama Buddha ⓘ |
| material |
sandstone
ⓘ
stone ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Ashoka ⓘ |
| nearbySite |
Maya Devi Temple
ⓘ
surface form:
Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini
sacred pond (Puskarini) at Lumbini ⓘ |
| partOf |
Lumbini
ⓘ
surface form:
Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
|
| purpose |
commemorative pillar
ⓘ
to mark the birthplace of the Buddha ⓘ |
| religion | Buddhism ⓘ |
| touristAttraction | yes ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ashoka Pillar Description of subject: The Ashoka Pillar is an ancient stone column erected by Emperor Ashoka to mark the birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini, Nepal, and bears one of his famous edicts.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Sarnath pillar edict
this entity surface form:
Ashokan pillar fragments
this entity surface form:
Ashoka pillar
subject surface form:
Ashoka Pillar (Lumbini)
this entity surface form:
Ashokan pillars
this entity surface form:
Ashokan pillar